The ARM version of Windows 8 might have just become the most desired version of Windows in our hearts and minds. After us talking about legacy code and backwards compatibility in Windows for years now, an Intel senior vice president, Renee James, has just stated that Windows 8 on ARM will not have any form of compatibility for legacy applications whatsoever. Update:Microsoft has responded to Intel's claims. "Intel's statements during yesterday's Intel Investor Meeting about Microsoft's plans for the next version of Windows were factually inaccurate and unfortunately misleading," the company said, "From the first demonstrations of Windows on SoC, we have been clear about our goals and have emphasized that we are at the technology demonstration stage. As such, we have no further details or information at this time."

I agree with the situation on the desktop, too much inertia, but in the data centre it's a whole different kettle of fish. Most companies these days when running Windows Server usually run the products provided by MS like Active Directory and MSSQL. If those are ported to ARM then I don't see an issue with data centre adoption of the platform.

Furthermore, the FLOSS Unix and *nix-like OSs out there are mostly a recompile away from running on ARM (and often already do). With physicalization (surprisingly) taking off, there are a whole bunch of applications where ARM would fit in quite snugly and with the ARM virtualization code being implemented currently, I've already spoken to some people expressing interest in running the platform as a test bed in the hope of further reducing their current power costs.

When it comes to tablet based systems, an area MS has said it's getting back into in a serious way with Windows 8, the market has shown that as long as you have apps that run on the platform people will buy it. Let's see if WP7 actually takes off and if so, MS can leverage what they've learned from Apple.

Frankly, I think that what's happening at the moment, in that ARM chips are forcing Intel to work towards ULV chips that can compete, is a very good thing. Intel with X86 has had far too much control of the market for far too long and although AMD has given them the odd run for their money, this is the first time I've seen Intel sweat for as long as I can remember. Competition truly is a good thing.